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It's really beginning to look like Christmas around here. Inside as well as out. As I've said before, I hadn't really done any indoor decorating to speak of since we were going to go out-of-town for the Christmas Holidays. "Change of plans" that I wrote about in my last post changed all of that. So, back up into the attic (with assistance to lift the boxes and carry the stuff back down the stairs, this time...:) for the Christmas china to set the table. There's a shot of the result (left).

About the centerpiece...N/M/E's BFF AW sent us a beautiful Lenox china-bowl centerpiece, complete with gold candles, red roses, and green pine and holly, right after Thanksgiving. The flowers and greenery lasted for nearly three weeks and provided us with the only festive decoration for the dining room. But, when the plans changed, I realized that we needed to refresh the centerpiece. Got a red carnation and white daisy-and-mum bouquet at the grocery to replace t…

First, a report on Handel's Messiah. Loved it. Had fab seats in Centenary UMC (photo, left), where the Winston-Salem Symphony and Messiah Festival Chorus, under the direction of the lively Robert Moody, gave their all to give us a stirring performance of the classic.

Mr. T and I (photo to right, taken in front of the Chrismon Tree at Centenary UMC) were joined for the evening by N/M/E and her BFF AW (photo below, right). Always a treat! (Not sure who that lady is behind N/M/E...we were waiting in the narthex for the doors to the sanctuary to open. Lots of folks with us.

So...about those plans we had...

We were planning on spending Christmas in L'ville this year. Packing up two cars for the trip. Dogs + presents + luggage + wheelchair & walker + cooler with the Christmas ham and other goodies = TWO CARS. Looking forward to Family Christmas with my brothers and SIL's at Missy M's house on the 19th. That's the reason I had "only" put up the Sheep T…

You know me, right? Never can do just one thing at a time...gotta multi-task. It's genetic...or, possibly a character flaw. Or both. No matter...not gonna change at this stage of life.

So, (and that's something I picked up from living in the STL area..."they" seem to begin every single sentence with "So...") yesterday was Baking Day here in HPNC. I got the Family Cookbook out (actually, it's never really "put away"), and gathered the ingredients for a few of our Holiday favorites...and one new addition.

As you can see in the photo (left), I got several goodies going at once: Louisiana Microwave Pralines (ab fab, only takes 13 minutes to make), Delaware Butter Ball cookies (you may know them by other names like Crescent Cookies, Swedish Sugar Balls, etc. -- they are those yummy cookies that get covered in powdered sugar), and Pumpkin Raisin Muffins (that's the new one for 2009). The photo to the right shows the Pralines cooling on the…

Mr. T and I went to Winston-Salem last night to attend the University of North Carolina's School of the Arts 2009 production of The Nutcracker. With a live orchestra playing the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and the enthusiastic (if not always on pointe...:) dancers telling the sweet story of Clara through their movements, we embraced the Season's spirit. We (along with most of rest of the audience) loved the Russian dancers in Act II, leaping and posing to their lively part. Hopefully, if you follow the link, you'll get a taste of it.

We started a Family Tradition of going to see the Nutcracker when Missy M was a little girl, and we were living in Memphis. That year, our cousin Larry Allen played a couple of parts in the production at the Orpheum (a beautiful theatre, as I recall), including the part of the Grandfather in the opening Act. And, I also remember a family favorite, Jack Eaton, playing a …

As you can see from the photo (right), Lillie Pearl PTC is all decked out for the Holidays. She's got her Rudolph Red Nose and Antlers all attached in proper style. When I was in ATL last week (where this shot was taken...at my home-away-from-home Homewood Suites/Peachtree Corners), the desk clerk asked me where the tail was? Swish, swish. Of course, I wouldn't want to be too authentic as it might still be deer hunting season in GA.

In answer to the question/comments from a couple of you ("what are you working on these days? You've stopped blogging about your projects..."), I'll have to plead the Fifth, I suppose. Since Christmas is almost here, there's a good reason why I'm not talking about or publishing photos of my current projects: all of them are gifts! But trust me when I say that my needles are still clicking away, late into the night. And, I'm really excited about one "group" of projects this year...can hardly wait to t…

Oh boy, oh boy...you know how much I love this time of year, right? And, this year has been even more exciting, as we have a new yard to decorate. Duke Power rejoiceth!

We started right after we'd begun to digest the turkey and trimmings. Put away the pumpkins. Hauled out the holly. As you can see in the photos, we are well-lit here on Wesseck Road.

We had purchased six 25' strands of C7 lights a couple of years ago during the after-Christmas sale at the O'Fallon True Value (which has since gone out of business, sad to say). We also got 6 packages of yard stakes as we were trying to avoid having to hang lights on the house. Of course, with the move to NC, we'd never used them...this would be our first year. Well, amazingly, this yard seemed to be designed perfectly for this scheme. We lined our natural area (the part of the yard under the trees...mulched in pine straw, without any grass) with the stakes and lights, starting with the lighted reindeer in the front…